Chelsea League Finishes By Year (1905 to Current)

The English Football League was created in 1888, made up of the twelve founding member clubs. In 1892, a second division was added, comprising of a further twelve teams, with the First Division now made up of sixteen sides. When Chelsea Football Club were formed in 1905, they were elected in to the Second Division, with Hull City, Leeds City, Stockport County and Clapton (later becoming Leyton) Orient, also added to create an expanded 20-team league.

Chelsea finished third in their debut season with 53 points, nine points behind second placed Manchester United, and 13 points short of champions Bristol City. At this point, only the first two teams in the league gained promotion to the First Division, a feat Chelsea achieved in 1906-1907, just their second season, when finishing as runners-up to Nottingham Forest.

Chelsea were relegated from the old First Division on six occasions, firstly in 1909-1910, and for the last time in 1987-1988. The Blues have never dropped below the first two divisions in the history of the club, with their longest spells out of the top division being the six seasons between 1924-1925 and 1929-1930 and the five seasons between 1979-1980 and 1983-1985.

Chelsea were last promoted to the top flight in 1988-1989, meaning that they were amongst the 22 sides to compete in the first ever Premier League season in 1992-1993, and are amongst a select group of clubs to have never been relegated since. Below we have a complete record of Chelsea’s league campaigns from 1905-1906 to the present day.